If you’re out of work, not meeting your financial goals, or frustrated with your present job, self employment is an option that’s well worth considering. Self employment can either serve as an income supplement or an income replacement — depending on your objectives, your skills, your motivation, and the demand for your products or services.

Starting Your Own Self-Employed Business

Below are articles, business guides, websites, software, and other tools that can help increase your chances of success in small business:

Proposal Software enables you to accurately quote projects, multiply your profitability, brand yourself as a top professional, and close sales! With Proposal Kit*, it’s easy to demonstrate to prospective clients and customers that you are the right professional for the job. In addition to proposal templates and sample proposals, you can also purchase contract management software for information technology projects, internet services, graphic design jobs, photography gigs, media services, advertising, marketing proposals, human resources, consulting, and general contracting. For more details, check out the article “It’s All About Trust.” [adv]

Start an e-commerce Business

If you’ve been looking for ways to start your own online store, Shopify* can provide you with the tools, the software, and the marketing strategies to make it happen. In addition to enabling you to create your own professional e-commerce website, Shopify can help you sell your products on social media sales channels, like Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter. They also offer online guides, tutorials, and marketing tips (see below) for anyone interested in starting their own business from home.

Being self employed at home is a realistic goal for almost anyone with ambition, organizational skills, and a thirst for knowledge. Here are two freeonline business guides that can help get you started:

How to find a product to sell online: This 14-chapter guide provides you with a step-by-step process for finding, evaluating, and choosing products to sell online — ones that are trending and in demand. (Read it online or download the business guide as a PDF file.) This information multiplies your chances for self-employment success by showing you how to validate your business concept before spending time and money on it. Don’t miss out on this free information!

How to make your first sale in 30 days: Once you’ve chosen a potentially profitable product niche and launched your online store, the next step is driving targeted traffic to your website and effectively promoting it. This marketing checklist for entrepreneurs provides a summary of proven strategies for mastering these challenges:

Marketing your ecommerce site through social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

The article and checklist will answer many of your questions on how to promote your website, effectively market your products, make sales online, and achieve your self-employment goals. Learn the techniques, today!

An e-commerce platform like Shopify* can help you handle the details of accepting credit card payments, fulfilling orders in a single step, monitoring sales (and sales trends), keeping track of your inventory, and creating your own customized business website and blog. Once you’ve accomplished that, you’re off and running!

If starting an online store is not in your “comfort zone,” then there are literally hundreds of other self employment ideas from which to choose — many of which can be started with very little money. I’ve listed a long list of business ideas below, along with links to more information, training materials, and other useful resources.

List of Self Employed Business Ideas

The following list of 250 business ideas is intended to help you develop viable ideas for starting your own part-time or full-time business.

Your decision of what business to start will depend on a lot of variables, such as current skills, talents, your level of motivation, available time and energy, relevant experience, contacts (who you know, not corrective lenses!), your existing reputation, market conditions (demand for your product or services), competitive factors, your financial resources, tolerance for risk, salesmanship abilities, “people skills”, problem-solving ability, willingness to improve, commitment to quality control and customer satisfaction, and — last, but not least — your work ethic.

Note: Having experience, relevant knowledge, and qualifications does improve your chances for success in a self employed business, however, a strong willingness to learn and make use of available training materials, workshops, webinars, and tutorials can compensate for a lack of qualifications and experience.

List of 250+ Self Employment Ideas

Some of the more popular business ideas that people are now pursuing or researching include the following self employment options:

While this list of self employment ideas is far from all inclusive, it does cover a lot of possibilities. If you can think of any other unique ideas for starting a small business, feel free to post a comment on this blog or email me your thoughts

Other Home-Based Business Ideas to Consider

If you’re a stay-at-home mom looking for an income supplement or even a profitable home business idea, you’re not alone. It’s a common challenge that countless parents face every day, throughout the world.

As a work-from-home dad, myself, I can speak from experience when it comes to being a home-based entrepreneur, freelance writer, blogger, website owner, and online marketing affiliate. In my opinion, one of the best businesses to start from home — whether you’re a stay-at-home parent, a college student, or a retiree — is freelance writing.

There are also plenty of other work-at-home business ideas that are worth exploring — especially if you have marketable skills, experience in a particular field, knowledge that others might benefit from, an entrepreneurial mindset, a product or service for which there’s a demand, and/or a background in sale

While you may find that searching for freelance gigs, self employment jobs, and work-at-home opportunities can be discouraging at times, your most important asset is your mindset: the ability to cultivate self confidence, determination, momentum, and the belief that you are surrounded by opportunities waiting to be discovered — opportunities that are often “hiding in plain sight.

To quote Henry Ford, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t — you’re right.”

In the Internet Age, there are countless ways to get a job, make money online, or start your own business. While there are no guarantees of success in any endeavor, the path to starting a profitable home business begins with a good idea, a proactive plan, and the determination to persist until you succeed.

Whether you’re considering being a freelance writer, a tutor, a bookkeeper, a virtual assistant, a freelance photographer, a social media marketing consultant, event planner, or an e-commerce business owner, there are a lot of self employment opportunities out there waiting to be identified and acted on. Why not get started today?

A couple of my favorite inspiration quotes, which are attributed to Liam Linisong, are the following:

“A year from now, what will you wish you had done today?”

“No one can stop you but yourself!”

Question: Does “luck” play a role in business and personal success? That’s a topic for a separate blog post, but there does appear to be an element of luck in many success stories. However, there’s more to luck than just serendipity. To quote movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn … or was it former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson:

“The harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”

Frequently Asked Questions:

“What Self Employed Business Should I Start?”

For many entrepreneurs, the first hurdle to being self employed and building their client list is not a lack of desire or a marketing strategy, but something much more fundamental: deciding what business to start.

When it comes to starting a new business, there are literally hundreds of options from which to choose. Based on my Internet research, the top-ten businesses to start are cleaning services, online businesses, photography services, a t-shirt business, consulting services, landscaping, lawn care, dog walking, construction, and real estate marketing.

Other small business ideas people are actively pursuing include event planning, tutoring, vending, operating a food truck, retail sales, jewelry, ebay businesses, trucking, interior and exterior house painting, and pet sitting . Enterprising people are doing everything from starting a gift basket business to being a home-based travel agent or starting a used car business. For those with a background in fitness, there’s always the option of setting up and running a fitness boot camp. A few other random self employment ideas include being a professional organizer, freelance writer or freelance copywriter.

If none of those self-employed business ideas appeal to you, there are many more. I’ve created a long list of other possibilities (above) to help you identify good business startup ideas. I’ll be adding to it, periodically, so feel free to bookmark this Web page for future reference. To stay current with new ideas, you can also “follow” this blog to receive email notifications when new posts and topics are added.

Stay tuned for more small business ideas, resources, marketing strategies, and guides to starting and succeeding in your own business.

Attention Real Estate Agents…

Real estate sales letters (also known as “prospecting letters” and “farming letters”) can be an effective way to generate leads, increase your client list, introduce yourself to prospective clients, get referrals, and boost your name recognition.

If you’re a self-employed real estate agent — or are considering becoming one — you’ll find some helpful tips and marketing strategies, as well as pointers on writing a new real estate agent introduction letter, on my website “Marketing Survival Kit.”

Work-at-Home Learning Center:

This module will show you where to find writing jobs online and includes tips for landing the job and getting repeat clients and assignments.

Establish yourself as a full-fledged writing service and have clients come to you! This module shows you how to set yourself apart from the competition, price your writing services effectively, set up your website, and generate a steady stream of clients.

Once you get your freelance writing business rolling, it’s time to move from trading hours for dollars to creating passive streams of income. This module shows you how to find or rediscover your niche, grow your biggest passive income asset, and more.

Here’s where you take things to the next level! Persuasive writing is a skill that not every writer naturally possesses, but it’s critical, no matter what type of writing you’re doing. Whether you’re trying to engage your audience or sell products and services, persuasive writing plays a key role. This module teaches you how to develop those persuasive writing skills and establish authority within your niche.

There many opportunities to turn writing into a full-time career. This module includes 34 of those markets and gives you ideas on approaching them as a freelancer and as a service-based business. This information also includes ideas for earning apassive income.

Previous Business Ideas Blog Posts

Important: Starting a self-employed businesses of any kind involves an element of financial risk, so it’s always wise to consult a CPA, business insurance advisor, and a business attorney when setting up, expanding, or anticipating future needs for a new or existing business.

Post navigation

Ideas For Starting a Business

Search for:

Affiliate Disclaimer:

I am a compensated affiliate of products and services featured on this blog, including Shopify ecommerce services, The Freelance Profit Academy, and other digital products, software, business startup manuals, and courses.

Entrepreneur Shirts

Business Proposals

Accurately quote your business proposals and estimates, multiply your profitability, brand yourself as a top professional, and win the bid! Proposal Kit helps demonstrate that you are the right professional for the job! This marketing tool is easy to use, customizable, and effective for writing competitive business proposals. Here's how it can help you win more business.*